Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2004 June 1-31

It started when Alice DeHan's mobile home park couldn't automatically withdraw its monthly maintenance fee from her bank account as it usually does. A phone call to the bank alerted DeHan that her Social Security check hadn't been deposited, and she was overdrawn. Why wasn't the check automatically deposited? The Social Security Administration said DeHan is dead, a claim she disputes. It was amusing at first, but when her cell phone was cut off and her health and car insurance cancelled, it ceased being funny. DeHan was finally able to convince the SSA that she is alive and start to straighten things out. But the agency never explained why it thought she was dead and told others that she was.

Half of California's law enforcement and public safety officers retire with disability benefits that entitle them to a lifetime of tax-free payments equal to half their final annual salary. Under state law, chronic lower back pain can earn someone a disability pension, as can cancer and even hernias. One prison guard who hurt his knee carrying a large coffee pot is also drawing disability. And one investigator is drawing benefits from both the Department of Motor Vehicles and the San Diego Sheriff's Department.

The British government is considering a plan to allow local government to seize houses that have been vacant for at least six months and rent them out. Those governments pay the rent back to the owners, after keeping enough to cover their costs, of course. Local governments already have the power to raise taxes on empty houses.

Former San Bernardino County, California, Sheriff Floyd Tidwell has pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of firearms from department storage. Many of the guns should have been returned to owners. Others were illegal under state or federal law and should have been destroyed. More than 400 of the guns reportedly can't be accounted for. Tidwell's plea deal will see him do no jail time if he helps locate those weapons.

After chasing and stopping an alleged drunk driver on the outskirts of Paris, French police were surprised to find the man was wearing only fishnet stockings. But they probably weren't shocked. The area they stopped him in is hangout for transvestite prostitutes. No, the real surprise was that the man was an off-duty policeman. The man allegedly told the officers who arrested him that he needed extra money so he moonlighted as a hooker.